‘Light is really integral to
what we do but I would
never say I am a lighting
designer or a light artist’
‘challenge the rigid rectilinear world of conventional
architecture.’ More than 10,000 circles of composite
fibre were painstakingly woven by hand and assembled
into a self-supporting structure called Arborescence
for the 2014 Amsterdam Light Festival boat route
Water Colors. It took the form of a luminescent
mangrove moving in response to the water and ‘was
a terrifying piece to suddenly have to lower into the
Amstel in winter,’ she recalls. ‘We had all the lighting
rigged and we had built a floating platform so most of
the work was submerged but the scale of the piece at

9m made it much more structural.’
More than just an installation, Arborescence was
a speculation about the future of light in the city,
proposing a hybrid between trees and streetlights in
order to create sustainable ‘living lighting’. Much of
Wingfield’s work has centred on emerging biological
and technological futures, and the possibilities that
come from crafting space, technology and living
materials to create experiences and environments.

Early projects included a biomimetic textile inspired
by photosynthesis and the first fully animated digital,
electronic wallpaper, Digital Dawn, in 2006. However,
she also researched MetaboliCity, a vision of a city that
literally nourishes its inhabitants, and much of her
work explores opportunities to intervene at an urban
scale, frequently by means of public engagement and
collaboration across disciplines.

In Taipei, Loop.pH explored the link between cities
and well-being with its light installation VelO2, when
the city hosted the Velo-City Global 2016 cycling
conference. Designed as a public space activation
project, it was essentially an interactive colour-changing BMX track that lit up in response to the

Atmeture, an ephemeral, luminous, animated tunnel
was commissioned for UK garden city Letchworth’s first
Fire and Fright Festival